This Regulation does not prevent Member States from applying their constitutional rules relating to freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the media. In particular, the application of a provision of the law designated by this Regulation which would have the effect of significantly restricting the scope of those constitutional rules may, depending on the circumstances of the case and the legal order of the Member State of the court seised, be regarded as being contrary to the public policy (ordre public) of the forum.

Article 5a

Privacy and rights relating to personality

1. The law applicable to a non-contractual obligation arising out of a violation of privacy or rights relating to the personality, including defamation, shall be the law of the country in which the most significant element or elements of the loss or damage occur or are likely to occur.

2. However, the law applicable shall be the law of the country in which the defendant is habitually resident if he or she could not reasonably have foreseen substantial consequences of his or her act occurring in the country designated by paragraph 1.

3. Where the violation is caused by the publication of printed matter or by a broadcast, the country in which the most significant element or elements of the damage occur or are likely to occur shall be deemed to be the country to which the publication or broadcasting service is principally directed or, if this is not apparent, the country in which editorial control is exercised, and that country’s law shall be applicable. The country to which the publication or broadcast is directed shall be determined in particular by the language of the publication or broadcast or by sales or audience size in a given country as a proportion of total sales or audience size or by a combination of those factors.

4. The law applicable to the right of reply or equivalent measures and to any preventive measures or prohibitory injunctions against a publisher or broadcaster regarding the content of a publication or broadcast and regarding the violation of privacy or of rights relating to the personality resulting from the handling of personal data shall be the law of the country in which the publisher, broadcaster or handler has its habitual residence.

The HCCH is seeking to retain a Consultant who will conduct a study and draft a further Report on specific aspects relating to the HCCH’s ongoing legislative project on Tourists and Visitors. Interested? For more information, follow this link to… Read more…

Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2) University will host a conference on November 21 on jurisdiction clauses: “La clause attributive de juridiction : de la prévisibilité au désordre”. The first part of the conference is dedicated to the factors of disorder, such as the… Read more…

As my fellow editor Thalia Kruger has already signaled earlier, the final conference for the EU-funded IC2BE project on the cross-border enforcement of claims in the EU will take place in Antwerp (Belgium) on 21 and 22 November 2019. The… Read more…

This is a reminder that the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) seeks high-achieving interns for January to July 2020. An internship with the HCCH offers a unique opportunity to deepen the knowledge of private international… Read more…

A bit more than a year ago, I posted here & here about a Greek ruling on the non-recognition of an Egyptian notarized talaq divorce. The same court rendered mid-July a new judgment related to the same case; this time… Read more…

As previously announced on this blog, the Albert-Ludwig-University of Freiburg (Germany) will host, on 10–11 October 2019, the final conference of the German branch in the framework of the research project "Informed Choices in Cross-Border Enforcement" (IC2BE). Funded by the… Read more…

The publication of Hannah L. Buxbaum‘s (Professor of Law and John E. Schiller Chair at Indiana University) lecture at The Hague Academy of International Law on “Public Regulation and Private Enforcement in a Global Economy: Strategies for Managing Conflict“ has… Read more…

The second issue of 2019 of the Rivista di diritto internazionale privato e processuale (RDIPP, published by CEDAM) was just released and it features: Adrian Briggs, Professor at Oxford University, Brexit and Private International Law: An English Perspective (in English) The effect… Read more…

The Department of Law of Loyola University Andalusia will be hosting an International Conference on 20-21 January 2020 in Seville, Spain, to discuss the impact of digitalization. The Conference which will revolve around five major thematic areas from a multi-disciplinary approach, will… Read more…